This invention relates to systems and methodologies in a virtual environment for training and education. Video games and virtual worlds have been associated with one another. Educational environments are known that employ virtual worlds and video game techniques. Examples follow.
Three dimensional virtual worlds, such as Second Life, provide modeling tools based on simple geometric shapes and allow residents to build virtual objects.
Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) are a genre of role-playing video games or web browser based games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world. The world continues to exist and evolve even when a given player is “offline” and away from the game
Educators (e.g., MicroMuse and Diversity University) use MMORPGs for learning purposes. MicroMuse is a multi-user simulation environment that features explorations, adventures, and puzzles with an engaging mix of social, cultural, and educational content. Diversity University allows people to connect in real-time to an online realm. A server tracks which characters are in each virtual “room,” so that the comments of each character can be sent back to every other person whose character was “in” the same virtual “room.” Diversity University was structured as a virtual university campus and pioneered actual online classes. It included immersive reenactments of literary texts such as Dante's Inferno in which students recreated some of the circles of Hell, populated with virtual robots that could interact with one another and with visitors to the site.
Other efforts include the 3D Avatar School (3DAS). 3DAS places live English teachers in a 3D virtual environment to deliver English lessons through the use of avatar characters. Following structured lesson plans, students gain new skills and abilities through adventure games where they explore planets, embark on quests, play against each other, their teacher and the virtual environment. Lesson progress, completion and performance data is recorded after each lesson in the Learning Management System (LMS).
The procedural Linden Scripting Language can be used to add interactivity to objects. Sculpted prims (sculpties), mesh, textures for clothing or other objects, animations, and gestures can be created using external software and imported.
Finally, Lumosity, and similar training regimes, provide working memory training exercises based on research in the area of neuroplasticity.
There remains, however, a need for a more robust model of learning including greater transfer and generalization of working memory and other skills. See, Putting Brain Training to the Test, Owen et al., Nature, 465(7299): 775-778 (Jun. 10, 2010).